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The family story behind EnglishBreakfast.nl

It began with
a breakfast.

A breakfast bar in Amsterdam. Good food at a fair price. And an English newspaper to read over breakfast. From that idea came Green Acres.

The story of Nick, Ben, Claire and Donna

Read our story
Nick outside Barney’s Breakfast Bar in Amsterdam, 1986. From the family archive.

The place he wanted to find

Good food.
A fair price.
An English newspaper.

A new illustration of Barney in his blue shirt and B paper cap, tossing a fried egg in a pan.
Barney, redrawn from the original window character.

Nick knew the kind of place he wanted to open: somewhere in Amsterdam where you could eat well without spending too much, and settle down with an English newspaper. In 1986, Nick founded Barney’s Breakfast Bar and coffeeshop.

The first English breakfast in the Netherlands, and Sunday roasts when nobody else here was serving them. ‘That’s what my dad always said, anyway,’ says Ben.

The newspapers were an essential part of the idea. Nick asked people travelling to Amsterdam to bring papers with them, keeping a recent edition available whenever possible. Breakfast, a newspaper and a little time to stay: that was the place he had in mind.

A closer look · Amsterdam, 1986

What was
on the menu?

The board beside Nick tells the story in its own words. This enlarged detail from the original photograph shows what you could order at Barney’s.

  • Full and small English breakfasts
  • Dutch and vegetarian breakfasts
  • Bacon, sausage, sandwiches and snacks
  • English newspapers to read over breakfast

“ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS SUPPLIED”

The handwritten daily special is too faint to read confidently in the photograph.

The menu board beside Nick, including the promise of English newspapers.
The original window of Barney’s Breakfast Bar, complete with the illustrated character returning to this story.
The old menu board still says it: English newspapers supplied.

From breakfast bar to wholesaler

A proper breakfast started
with the right products.

Putting an English breakfast on the menu was one thing. Finding the products Nick wanted to serve was another. Sourcing the range for the breakfast bar took work.

In 1992, Nick sold Barney’s. Its new owners and their team made it a name recognised around the world: a celebrated Amsterdam coffeeshop and, through Barney’s Farm, an internationally renowned cannabis genetics company with numerous High Times Cannabis Cup wins. Barney’s remains Irish-owned.

Nick took his experience of sourcing products for the breakfast bar into his next venture. In 1996, he founded Green Acres. The search for products for his own kitchen became the starting point for a wholesaler helping other business owners find what they needed.

A familiar face from the family archive

Barney on the window.
Paul behind the character.

The cook on the window was no random character. Nick had him modelled on his friend Paul. The curls, long nose, blue shirt and white paper cap made Barney instantly recognisable.

In the old photograph, Paul stands beside his illustrated likeness. Years later, we are bringing the character back for EnglishBreakfast.nl: a familiar face with his own history, connecting the site to the breakfast bar.

Paul beside the original Barney window illustration. From the family archive.

A memory that travelled

From Amsterdam
to Greece.

Nick had thousands of these stickers. They turned up far beyond Amsterdam: on holiday, the family would even find them stuck to walls in Greece.

The red lettering, Barney with his frying pan and the address on the sticker carried a little piece of the breakfast bar with them. The original still reads: Haarlemmerstraat 102, Amsterdam.

Illustrative reconstruction: the sticker on a wall in Greece.

An idea for the next chapter

Barney Approves.

Barney Approves is the idea for a private-label range of core English breakfast products. The first pack: Real English Breakfast Bacon, with the distinctive back-bacon cut. The character connects the new range with the breakfast bar where the story began.

Packaging concept · Real English Breakfast Bacon

The family carries the story forward

Ben, Claire
and Donna.

Nick passed away suddenly in 2011. His children, Ben Mathews and Claire, inherited Green Acres. Together with their mother, Donna Kenway, they carried the family business forward.

Claire played an active part in running Green Acres alongside Ben and Donna. In 2017, Ben bought her share of the business as she moved on to pursue other interests. Ben and Donna continue to run Green Acres today.

The business experienced a period of very strong growth, followed by difficult years as Brexit and the COVID pandemic brought profound changes to its market.

Today, Ben and Donna are laying the foundations for the next phase of growth.

  1. 1986

    Barney’s begins

    Nick opens his breakfast bar in Amsterdam.

  2. 1996

    Green Acres begins

    From finding products to helping others source them.

  3. 2011

    Ben and Claire inherit Green Acres

    Together with Donna, they carry the family business forward.

  4. Today

    The next step

    Building towards a new phase of growth.

The next page

It still starts
with a good breakfast.

EnglishBreakfast.nl brings the story back to the breakfast where it began. Here, hospitality businesses, hotels and buyers can explore the range and find practical information for their own breakfast menus.

The next step builds on a question that mattered to Nick: how do you get the right products to the people who want to work with them?

Explore the breakfast rangeMeet Green Acres

Family recollections from Ben Mathews and original archive photographs.